Quick Links – Women avoid science careers; electronic portfolios; Wisconsin’s ‘post-union era’

‘Women With Both High Math and Verbal Ability Appear Less Likely to Choose Science Careers Because Their Dual Skills Confer More Career Options’ (University of Pittsburgh)

Study also finds that women with high math skills and only moderate verbal ability are the ones who appear more likely to choose STEM careers

Why are women with more options turning away from STEM careers?  Are they being steered away from these careers, or are they making choices based on their own interests?

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Electronic portfolios are becoming more accepted by employers.

Job seekers are increasingly using electronic portfolios as a way to:

• showcase achievement
• demonstrate learning and experience
• give and receive peer feedback (privately or publicly)
• achieve promotion, and much more.

Some universities host e-portfolios for their students, or other sites and resources can be used.  Clemson University has an ePortfolio Program with a gallery of  examples.

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In a ‘post-union era’, Wisconsin aims to reward ‘hard-working, high-achieving, and outstanding’ state employees.

After the “virtual elimination of collective bargaining and automatic dues collections” invalidated union contracts for Wisconsin state employees, the compensation system has changed from one that mandated automatic pay raises for all employees.

Bigger raises for fewer people

Under the discretionary merit pay program, fewer  employees received raises compared to the old collective bargaining agreement; the average raise was more money.

To eliminate the gender wage gap, don’t let women major in sociology

Advice on how to eliminate the gender wage gap from Christina Hoff Sommers:

Talented young women who aspire to be rich and powerful would be advised to major in economics or electrical engineering rather than psychology or social work. They should be prepared to work 60 hours a week at the office rather than combining shorter hours with home, family, and other pursuits they find fulfilling. Those who stick with this course will find that their W-2s are equal to those of their male counterparts.

While some sex discrimination undoubtedly exists, it is does not appear to be the reason for most of the gender wage gap.  The gap mainly arises from the choices women make about their jobs and their families.  Perhaps some women need to be “empowered” to make different decisions, but I suspect most women already exercise free choice.

… But American women today are as independent-minded and self-determining as any in history. It is condescending to suggest that they have been manipulated when they choose home and family over high-octane careers—or to pursue degrees in education rather than engineering.

Related:  The Gender Wage Gap Is Getting Worse (thinkprogress.org)

Quick Links – College recommended but not marriage; record student loan write-off; minimal sequester effects; plus more

◊◊◊  Why Do Economists Urge College, But Not Marriage? (The Daily Beast)

Megan McArdle:

Both are good for you. Only one is viewed as a proper aim of society.

College improves your earning prospects.  So does marriage.  Education makes you more likely to live longer.  So does marriage.  Yet while many economist vocally support initiatives to move more people into college, very few of them vocally favor initiatives to get more people married.  Why is that, asks Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry? His answer:

Meanwhile, economists’ “cosmopolitan perspective” (as Cowen puts it) makes them not feel good at the idea of public policy that would interfere with personal choices (allowing for a second that getting married is a “personal choice” in a way that going to college isn’t). Most economists think that government should not interfere or have a stance one way or another with decisions that feel intimate to people. That is a complete value judgement. And it’s a completely defensible one.

But at the level of the economics profession, this leads to bias: much more ink is spilled on, and thought given to the college wage premium than the marriage wage premium. One is mostly praised and interpreted in a certain way, while the other is mostly ignored. And, of course, the thing that academic economics focuses on has an effect on elite debate and public policy, especially when the socially liberal, pro-higher ed biases of economists line up well with those of the rest of the elite.

Another reason suggested by McArdle is that economists have typically been very successful in college, but perhaps not so successful in marriage.

◊◊◊  Banks wrote off $3 billion of student loan debt in the first two months of 2013 (Chicago Tribune)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Banks wrote off $3 billion of student loan debt in the first two months of 2013, up more than 36 percent from the year-ago period, as many graduates remain jobless, underemployed or cash-strapped in a slow U.S. economic recovery, an Equifax study showed.

◊◊◊ The sequester happened and the sky didn’t fall.

Report: Most Colleges Not Hit Hard by Sequester

Most universities will face only minimal effects from the automatic budget cuts that went into effect at the beginning of the month, according to a report released Thursday by Moody’s Investors Service. The report looked at the projected financial effect of the 5 percent cuts to domestic discretionary spending, known as sequestration, and found that only 1 percent of colleges and not-for-profits stood to lose more than 3 percent of their annual revenue as the result of the cuts.

Research universities were most likely to be hit hard by the cuts because federal funding for scientific research is one of the areas affected. While some financial aid programs — particularly federal work-study and the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant — will also be cut, the Pell Grant, bedrock of need-based financial aid programs, is safe for the 2013-14 academic year.

◊◊◊  1 in 5 high school-age boys are diagnosed with ADHD, double the rate for girls.

Fifteen percent of school-age boys have received an A.D.H.D. diagnosis, the data showed; the rate for girls was 7 percent. Diagnoses among those of high-school age — 14 to 17 — were particularly high, 10 percent for girls and 19 percent for boys. About one in 10 high-school boys currently takes A.D.H.D. medication, the data showed.

It makes me wonder if just “being a boy” is considered a disease.  Schools, pressure to succeed in academics  and the pharmaceutical industry are all getting blamed for what may be an over-diagnosis problem.

Long hours may explain why educated women quit the workforce – ‘the time divide’

Why do so many highly educated mothers drop out of the work force?  Probably because they can afford it and because the long hours they are required to work are tough on family life.

… Today, whether you’re male or female, if you’re taking home an upper-middle-class salary you’re expected to work an average of 50 hours, and probably more, a lot of it after you’ve gone home. As of 1997, the average workweek for a man with graduate education was 50 hours, and for a women 47—that three-hour difference can be accounted for, of course, by all the women who went on mommy tracks. Among American dual-career couples, in the 1990s, 15.2 percent of those with at least college degrees worked a joint 100 hours a week or more, whereas only 9.6 of couples without diplomas did that. Try to imagine what that 100-hour workweek looked like to a child: that’s five 10-hour days, plus commutes, for both parents. And those are just averages—for people at the top of their fields, the numbers were a great deal bigger.

That the workweek is ballooning for America’s educated, salaried classes, even as it’s shrinking for less educated, hourly workers, or turning into part-time work, has been called the “time divide”—the increasing inequality of time spent working, which tracks with the rise of economic inequality. As of 2002, for example, Americans in the top fourth of earners toiled an average of 15 hours more than earners in the bottom fourth….

Women currently enrolled in college do not fully realize the price of “leaning in” to their career, according to Judith Shulevitz writing in The New Republic.

When I meet young female undergraduates and graduate students today, which I do when I speak at universities, I don’t find them neo-traditionalist or lacking in aspiration. They don’t seem to want to stay home with their kids. They have every intention of using their formidable educations to achieve professional success, just as I did when I was in college. And like me back then, they don’t really grasp what that will require.

In our interview, Jacobs told me about a recent class in which he and his students discussed a study done of graduates of the University of Chicago’s business school. After 10 years, the study’s researchers found, the female graduates were making half of what their male classmates were making; the 90^th percentile for women was where the median was for men. “Of course,” added Jacobs, “they’re all making a ton of money. It’s not like you could feel terrible for these women. But in terms of the disparity, it was pretty dramatic.” As the discussion continued, the young women in the class started putting their heads in their hands or on their desks. They hadn’t heard any of this before. But they’ll be hearing a lot more of it in the years to come.

I was clueless about all this when I was in college, mainly because my plans did not include children.  It was only after my first child was of school age and my job required me to be away from home 50-60 hours a week did I fully realize the challenges of balancing work and family.  My long commute, which contributed to the lack of flexibility, was a particular problem.  Even with good childcare, my husband and I could not escape the stress of trying to manage a family while dealing with a combined workweek of more than 100 hours.  So I simply quit working, grateful that I could afford it.  Other circumstances, including a major home remodeling project, also factored into my decision.

Another consideration in having one parent stay home with the children is the expanded flexibility it often gives the working parent to grow his career.  In our case, my husband no longer needed to factor in my availability when he had to work late or go out of town on business.  So in addition to lowering stress levels at home, it probably helped him in advancing his career.

Of course there are downsides to having one spouse drop out of the workforce.

Shulevitz thinks we need more government regulation so that professional mothers can stay in the workforce.

 Professional accomplishment shouldn’t and doesn’t have to look like this. The main reason white-collar workers can be driven to work 80-hour-or-so weeks is that very few of them have government protections. Most of them are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which mandates the 40-hour-week and overtime pay. American managers aren’t allowed to join unions. Other countries have laws that protect against overwork even for professionals, such as standard or maximum number of hours anyone can work in a week….

Related:  ’84% of working women want to stay home with kids’ (Cost of College)

Lack of college-educated men may be a reason for declining marriage numbers

The lack of college-educated men may signal more problems for the future of marriage.

The importance of marriage is on the rise among women while decreasing among men.

 … According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997 – from 28 percent to 37 percent. For men, the opposite occurred. The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent.

Gender imbalance may be creating an obstacle to marriage for college-educated women.

… Across the United States today, young women are much more likely to graduate from college than their male peers, a trend that’s been compounding itself for a few decades now. And because college graduates overwhelmingly tend to date other college graduates, that’s created an enormous imbalance in the national dating pool. In Portland, the situation is particularly dire. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, there are 33 percent more women in Portland who are under the age of 35 and have at least a bachelor’s degree in than there are men. That’s on par with New York, which is notorious for its lopsided gender ratio.  

Marriage is on the decline, and the lack of college-educated men suggests a continuation of this trend for highly educated women, a group that has been most resistant to the trend so far.

Where to find college-educated men
Recently I was at local watering hole on one of their ladies’ nights, a practice I mistakenly thought had been ruled illegal.  By the looks of the crowd, I would say that young women looking for college-educated men of marrying age might want to check this place out.  Promoting itself as “definitely worth the 30 minute train ride from” New York City, this establishment might be especially attractive to NYC women who are experiencing the effects of that city’s gender imbalance.  But considering the long-term trend, I wonder if we’ll soon be seeing “men’s nights” at these types of places.

Related:

• College-educated women marry at higher rates (Cost of College)
• College Graduation Score: Women 30%, Men 22% (businessweek.com)
• The Worst Cities for College-Educated Women Trying to Find a Decent Date (The Atlantic)

Quick Links – Why women talk more than men; only 1 in 5 passed AP tests; most think accuracy in textbooks is secondary to political correctness

◊◊◊  Why Women Talk More Than Men: Language Protein Uncovered (Science World Report)

You know all the times that men complain about women talking too much? Apparently there’s a biological explanation for the reason why women are chattier than men. Scientists have discovered that women possess higher levels of a “language protein” in their brains, which could explain why females are so talkative.

Previous research has shown that women talk almost three times as much as men. In fact, an average woman notches up 20,000 words in a day, which is about 13,000 more than the average man. In addition, women generally speak more quickly and devote more brainpower to speaking. Yet before now, researchers haven’t been able to biologically explain why this is the case.

Now, they can. New findings conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and published in The Journal of Neuroscience show that a certain protein may be the culprit.

◊◊◊  1 in 5 Passed Advanced Placement Tests (New York Times)

Nearly a third of the nation’s 2012 public high school graduates took at least one of the College Board’s Advanced Placement tests, according to the program’s annual report on Wednesday. Nearly one in five got a passing score — three or more, out of five — on one of the 34 subject exams. Last year was the first time in a decade that the average exam score increased from the previous year. The share of students earning at least a 3 also rose for the first time in that period, and the 14.2 percent earning a top score of five was also the highest in the decade.

This is not good news.  Schools are using precious resources to teach classes where only 20% of students get passing grades.  Apparently the course work is too demanding (or instruction is inadequate) for 80% of these students.  The other side to this argument is that it is a good thing to expose more students to the rigorous AP curriculum.

CORRECTION:  I misinterpreted the AP test article, which actually reports that 1 in 5 of all high school students (not just those who took the AP tests) got a passing score.  Thanks to the commenter who pointed this out!

◊◊◊  59% Think Most School Textbooks Put Political Correctness Ahead of Accuracy

Voters continue to believe that political correctness trumps accuracy in most school textbooks. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 16% of Likely U.S. Voters think most school textbooks are more concerned about accurately providing information. That’s down from 27% in March 2010. Fifty-nine percent (59%) think most textbooks are chiefly concerned with presenting information in a politically correct manner, consistent with attitudes for the past three years. Twenty-five percent (25%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Count me among that 59%.

Even if boys score better than girls on standardized tests, they get lower grades

Boys score as well as or better than girls on most standardized tests, yet they are far less likely to get good grades, take advanced classes or attend college….

The sometimes controversial Christina Hoff Sommers wrote about this problem of “Boys at the back” in our public schools, illustrated in this chart posted by Mark Perry.

Boys score as well as or better than girls on most standardized tests, yet they are far less likely to get good grades, take advanced classes or attend college. Why? A study coming out this week in The Journal of Human Resources gives an important answer. Teachers of classes as early as kindergarten factor good behavior into grades — and girls, as a rule, comport themselves far better than boys.

The study’s authors analyzed data from more than 5,800 students from kindergarten through fifth grade and found that boys across all racial groups and in all major subject areas received lower grades than their test scores would have predicted.

The scholars attributed this “misalignment” to differences in “noncognitive skills”: attentiveness, persistence, eagerness to learn, the ability to sit still and work independently. As most parents know, girls tend to develop these skills earlier and more naturally than boys.

That last sentence, which I’ve highlighted, may hold a key to one reason for the gender gap in school performance.  Girls have the edge over boys not only in earlier development of certain social and organizational skills, but also in reading and writing.  Over time schools have pushed down more rigorous academic and organizational requirements to younger grades, making it more likely for boys to develop early gaps that often persist to the upper grades and college.

A related reason for the gender gap may be what David Brooks called the lack of cultural diversity.

… The education system has become culturally cohesive, rewarding and encouraging a certain sort of person: one who is nurturing, collaborative, disciplined, neat, studious, industrious and ambitious. People who don’t fit this cultural ideal respond by disengaging and rebelling.

Far from all, but many of the people who don’t fit in are boys….

I wrote about this last year.

Brooks is describing what is often called the “feminization” of public schools.  This term is distasteful to some, probably because it reinforces gender stereotypes.  Whatever the label, it does appear that schools have become “culturally homogeneous” in a way that hurts boys more than girls.  It starts in elementary school when an early reader is told that he got the wrong answer because he picked “mad” instead of “sad” to describe how the boy in the story feels after he doesn’t get the bike he wanted for his birthday.*  It continues through high school where group discussions in history class only allow expressions of compassion for victims of war but no praise for brilliant military maneuvers.  The message is clear – only certain types of behaviors and thoughts are welcome in the classroom.

There’s no doubt that students do need to be ”studious and industrious” to perform well academically.  It just seems that public schools are misguided in the methods they use in trying to develop those qualities in all students, particularly in boys.

Suggested reforms

Sommers points out that this gender gap should motivate schools to find ways to promote boys’ academic achievement, as they have done for girls in recent cases when the gender gap has been reversed.  She suggests some changes that the British, the Canadians and the Australians have implemented.

… These include more boy-friendly reading assignments (science fiction, fantasy, sports, espionage, battles); more recess (where boys can engage in rough-and-tumble as a respite from classroom routine); campaigns to encourage male literacy; more single-sex classes; and more male teachers (and female teachers interested in the pedagogical challenges boys pose).

One example of how poor noncognitive skills can create a misalignment between grades and test scores

I know of a case where a middle school boy consistently earned almost perfect test scores in his social studies class and who reached the finals in his state’s geography bee contest.  However, his average grade was significantly lowered by his poor class notes, likely due to a deficit in “noncognitive skills”.  Because of his grades, and because “behavior and work habits” counted so heavily in the admissions process, he was shut out of his high school’s social studies honors track.  If not for his parents’ intervention to override the school’s policies and allow him to enroll in the honors course, he might have languished in courses that were too easy and boring for him.  As it happened, he went on to graduate with honors and enroll in an elite university.

Related:

• Only when women are overrepresented on every educational metric will we have reached the goal of ‘full gender equity’? (Carpe Diem)
• Public schools are not diverse enough for boys (Cost of College)
• Girls make better grades because they’re nicer? (onlineathens.com)

Quick Links – Women tend to overthink things; high school graduation rates go up; employers want basic skills

◊◊◊ Women tend to overthink things

The late Susan Nolen-Hoeksema was a psychologist and professor at Yale University:

Her studies, first in children and later in adults, exposed one of the most deceptively upsetting of these patterns: rumination, the natural instinct to dwell on the sources of problems rather than their possible solutions. Women were more prone to ruminate than men, the studies found, and in a landmark 1987 paper she argued that this difference accounted for the two-to-one ratio of depressed women to depressed men….

“The way I think she’d put it is that, when bad things happen, women brood — they’re cerebral, which can feed into the depression,” said Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, who oversaw her doctoral work. “Men are more inclined to act, to do something, plan, beat someone up, play basketball.”

…
◊◊◊  High-school graduation rates go up, but reasons are unknown

America’s high school graduation rate, which stagnated for the last three decades of the 20th century, is now climbing, according to a new, comprehensive look at the key education gauge by Harvard University economist Richard Murnane.

Using various data sources, Mr. Murnane, who teaches at Harvard’s education school, estimates that 77.6% of Americans between 20 and 24 in 2000 had high school diplomas.

Among those born 10 years later — that is, those who were between 20 and 24 in 2010 — 83.7% had diplomas.

The improvement was particularly sharp among blacks and Hispanics. For instance, in 2000, 61.2% of black men between 20 and 24 had finished high school; in 2010, 72.0% of black men in that age bracket had….

Mr. Murnane says he and other academics can’t fully explain the fall and rise of high school graduation rates. The economic reward for getting a diploma — higher wages — is substantial and grew during the years when dropout rates were rising, confounding economists who would have expected that to encourage people to finish high school.

There is some speculation that lower lead levels may be a factor.

…
◊◊◊  Most employers value basic skills over digital expertise

The Millenial Branding and Experience Inc. study, released May 14, shows an overwhelming majority  of employers surveyed (as in, more than 92 percent) cite basic communication skills, a positive attitude and teamwork skills as absolutely essential to landing entry-level positions.

Education Speaks editorial board member Christine Geraci:

A few months ago, I moderated a discussion between residents at a school budget community conversation hosted by one of the school districts in our region. When asked to provide feedback on the district’s overall curriculum, a significant number said they wanted to see more emphasis on building soft skills such as writing and oral communication.

One local business owner sitting at my table said he wanted to hire local high school students, but often refrained because they didn’t look customers in the eye when speaking to them, and wrote in abbreviated ‘text speak.’ In his opinion, this was a direct result of too much exposure to tech gadgets and social media. Although he agreed digital tools have their place in education, basic writing and speaking skills – you know, with regular pencils and actual voices — shouldn’t take a backseat as a result.

Women, by nature ‘less confrontational and more collaborative’, may never match men in upper ranks at Goldman Sachs

While the number of women rising in the ranks and raking in big bucks as managing directors and partners at Goldman Sachs has increased, it seems unlikely that full gender parity will be achieved any time soon.

Almost one-quarter (23%) of the newly-minted MDs are women, up from 19% a year ago, according to Bloomberg. Just 14% of this year’s partner class is women, although that’s the highest percentage since at least 2006.

The 346 Goldman employees to be named managing director or partner need not worry about reports highlighting a compensation drain on Wall Street. MDs typically make a base salary of around $500,000, with year-end bonuses that can bring their total compensation well into the millions. Partners, meanwhile, take home around a $1 million base with an even more aggressive incentive plan.

When Jordann Weissmann of the Atlantic asked Why Don’t More Women Get Promoted at Goldman Sachs?, he answered his own question by explaining that the main underlying reason is babies.  Mothers with rich husbands are more likely to interrupt their careers to stay home with their children.  Weissmann also concedes that discrimination plays a role.

In the Atlantic, a woman who worked at Goldman Sachs describes the atmosphere there as “a frat on steroids.”

I don’t know, then, what kind of woman is the proper type to succeed at Goldman. Even in benign ways, the place was a giant man-cave. The annual industry citations from Institutional Investor that the analysts strived for were all sports metaphors: making the “All Star” team, or, even better, to be chosen as a Hall of Famer. It seems to me that in order to be the kind of good-humored “team player” that would smilingly go to Scores or on a booze-filled golf retreat, you’d also have to be the kind of person to negate your extra X chromosome, i.e., you’d have to be the kind of person to negate who you really are. What woman, really, could sit in her power suit and convincingly enjoy a pair of breasts swinging in the face while her male colleagues and clients ogle g-strings?

All this sounds familiar to me, having spent many years working in New York City’s financial services sector.  A similar but tamer atmosphere prevailed when I worked in the male-dominated oil business, and apparently some of this exists in high tech companies.

Women tend to dominate support services in some industries.
The woman who wrote the Atlantic article worked in the Goldman Sachs communications department, typically a female-dominated department.  I saw this demarcation between the sexes when I worked in financial services and in the oil business.  Women tended to dominate support services like communications, marketing, and drafting technology.  They sometimes tended to view the male-dominated core departments with some derision, so this writer’s perspective is not surprising.

What do investment bankers do on weekends?

“Goldman brings a massive team,” said Will Dean, the 31-year-old founder of Tough Mudder. “So does Morgan Stanley.

It’s no accident that it’s mainly men (lots of Wall Street types) who participate in activities like the Tough Mudder, “an extreme obstacle course that is becoming the macho sport of choice for Type A men (and some women) who find marathons too easy and triathlons meh”.  During these weekend ordeals, participants have fun crawling in cold mud, swimming in icy water, and competing in other “chest-thumping” races.

And they have their groupies.

As Mr. Cugini crossed the finish line, he was greeted by pretty volunteers who slipped an orange headband over his head and a banana in his hand. A cover band played the White Stripes, and in the dying light, men did pull-ups and drank beer.

Meanwhile, a group of female senators interviewed by ABC News say that because of their nature if women were in charge we would have no fiscal cliff crisis.

Senator Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said by nature women are “less confrontational and more collaborative,” – both traits necessary to reach a deal to avoid the country going over the fiscal cliff.

I don’t doubt that by “nature”, men and women are different.  While full equality of opportunity is desirable, I don’t think we should push for full equality of outcomes between the sexes.  We don’t need an initiative promoting full gender parity among Goldman Sachs partners, for example.

Quick Links – fewer men want to marry; record average net worth

»»»  Women finding scarcity of men who want to get married

The battle of the sexes is alive and well. According to Pew Research Center, the share of women ages eighteen to thirty-four that say having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in their lives rose nine percentage points since 1997 – from 28 percent to 37 percent. For men, the opposite occurred. The share voicing this opinion dropped, from 35 percent to 29 percent.

Believe it or not, modern women want to get married. Trouble is, men don’t.

Women are the losers.

It’s the women who lose. Not only are they saddled with the consequences of sex, by dismissing male nature they’re forever seeking a balanced life. The fact is, women need men’s linear career goals – they need men to pick up the slack at the office – in order to live the balanced life they seek.

Suzanne Venker says women are to blame

So if men today are slackers, and if they’re retreating from marriage en masse, women should look in the mirror and ask themselves what role they’ve played to bring about this transformation.

The war on men (Fox News)

……

»»»  ‘American Households Hit 43-Year Low In Net Worth’

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – The median net worth of American households has dropped to a 43-year low as the lower and middle classes appear poorer and less stable than they have been since 1969.

According to a recent study by New York University economics professor Edward N. Wolff, median net worth is at the decades-low figure of $57,000 (in 2010 dollars). And as the numbers in his study reflect, the situation only appears worse when all the statistics are taken as a whole.

Who’s to blame?

An August Pew Research Center study found that many in the middle-class are divided on how they believe this gap widened.

Fully 85 percent of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living. Of those who feel this way, 62 percent say “a lot” of the blame lies with Congress, while 54 percent say the same about banks and financial institutions, 47 percent about large corporations, 44 percent about the Bush administration, 39 percent about foreign competition and 34 percent about the Obama administration.

Just 8 percent put “a lot” of blame on the middle class itself.

An ominous sign for future prosperity

Wolff’s focus on total wealth not only measures how much money a household brings in, but also the amount it accumulates. This latter number is very significant — economically secure households are generally more comfortable spending their disposable income, and are less likely to become a drag on the social safety net.